X Factor Tournament - Series 2
The X Factor Tournament IS the hottest game to hit the Digital Spy Forums evah, tbh. Hosted by the wonderful Alex; 20 participants compete to be crowned the tournament champion by picking, by the time of the final, 15 songs, for 15 different X Factor acts. Only the best will get through as week by week the number of forum members participating is whittled down and the further you get, the harder it will be to survive. You can only make it all the way if you pick 15 strong choices - meaning that to win; you have to be an all-round great song picker! Participants If the act is in BOLD = The act gained the first call-out. If the act is in ITALICS = The act was eliminated. Call Outs Call Out Order Averages Courtesy of the magnificent Justin! Round One After a quick set of introductions, the first show in this series of the X Factor Tournament got off to a fiery start! As a massive number of 20 mentors set out on their journey to become the Next Top Mentor! These 20 come from all different types of backgrounds, from different locations around the world but all have the same goal. To be crowned on top. To be told that they ''are the best. The tournament got off to a controversial start with one mentors song being entirely exposed as several other mentors came to the front to say that they were already aware of that mentors song. In a competition which is balanced through anonymity, this was taken to be a punishable offense and the mentor in question, Jess, was warned. Also proving to be controversial was Bazz' choice for Keri Arindell, which was used a few months before for Treyc Cohen in the other forum favourite, the Never Ending X Factor Game. Despite this, both choices were deemed respectable and appealed to the others. Furthermore, mentor Val was battling internal confidence issues as to whether or not she was going to be able to get through even the first week. Meanwhile, amongst the mentors there was a stark difference between their selection of songs, some choosing to settle with mainstream hits whereas others pushed the boat out with more indie choices. On top of this, the choice of act for many seemed to be quite interesting. There was a very big range of acts chosen, ranging from winners of their series to acts who didn't even progress through the bootcamp stages. At panel, tough-talking SacredDiablo impressed the most, wowing both Tyra and the judges with a choice for Janet Devlin. Gav, Aliyah and Zak were also given plenty of airtime and shown to be some of the best. Although controversial, the final person netting a place in the Top 5 was Jess. However, for many, being so low was quite a shock. With both Jess and many other mentors seeing her choice of song used for Rebecca Ferguson as the one to beat. Proving that age of the mentor isn't an important factor on success, our youngest mentor Niall and oldest mentor Pete were the two next names called, whilst Louise also impressed the panel with a choice for Lucie Jones. Despite only really appearing in progress montages throughout the show, David (Carlisle), Justin, Kevin and Tommy were all able to secure middle places. Also managing to gain entry to the second round of the tournament were new mentors Jackel and Stevie whilst penned 'copycat' mentor Bazz was also able to make it through. Five mentors remained; Dylan, Seth, Stacey, Steve and Val. Fan of all things Indie and edgy, Dylan was the next name to be called followed by Val who used a 'mainstream' choice in Beyonce for Alexandra Burke. As the bottom 3 were called, Steve (Soppyfan) was the first mentor to be given the boot having been told that taking a risk isn't always the best, especially not when it comes to first impressions. He learned a valuable lesson that choosing an unknown act, such as Ladybird, definitely does not always pay off. Then it came down to just two, with only one space left in the competition. Both mentors were given very contrasting criticisms. Seth was in the bottom 3 because his overly indie choice just wasn't relating to the voters, whereas Stacey's mainstream choice of Joss Stone also alienated the more indie voters. However, with only one mentor able to progress, who should stay? Mainstream or Indie? Ultimately, Tyra decided to give one more chance to Seth as the past record for his indie prowess has displayed tonnes of potential to advance far in the competition. Sadly, that meant that Stacey's short-lived journey in the competition was over. Fadeout Show #1 Round Two After the upsetting elimination of Stacey and Steve, the rest of the mentors took the rest of the night off to contemplate their departures but for Tommy, it was a whole different story. Stacey and him had a bond; they were practically like brother and sister so he was visibly very upset after she was eliminated. In the confessions room, Tommy cried over the departure of his best friend and went as far as to say that he felt defeated already, worrying that her leaving would mean he wouldn’t be able to perform to the best of his abilities. However, it was a different story for revered mentor SacredDiablo, fresh from his achievements of being the first mentor of the new series to be awarded a first-call out, he celebrated in style with a bottle of very expensive champagne that he drank ''all by himself. As the next day dawned and the mentors were about to choose their second song, several of the mentors took to the confessionals to say their ambitions for this round of the competition. Kevin started by insisting that after only a mediocre call-out to start with he was going to rise in the rankings and have a surge all the way to first call-out. Also hoping to do much better was Justin who ensured he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve for the rest of the competition and Seth who realised he had made mistakes with such alternative choices but was all set to change things around. When the songlist was posted, reviews were coming in thick and thin although for one persons reviews, current top mentor SacredDiablo, he put a few peoples noses out of joint. In one case, going as far as to call a song choice ‘pathetic’. Later in the day it began to become apparent which songs would be doing well. In particular, Bazz’ song choice for Katie Smith seemed to be getting very positive reviews, Pete’s Girl V Boy indie choice on top of Louise’s song for one of her personal favourite acts Olly Murs. Whereas other people weren’t having such a great day at the office, Stevie’s very unique choice for rejected girl group Miss Fitz looked in danger, following the girlband trend set by Ladybird in the previous round. Fellow girl group Addictiv Ladies, mentored by Tommy, were also getting very negative reviews making it look like a bad week for the girlbands. Also getting negative criticism was Goldie, mentored by Seth who was looking likely for two poor weeks in a row. He expressed his doubts in the confession room. Jess made a change to her usual sort of song this round too, hoping to negate the controversies that surrounded her from week before. However, unfortunately for her, her new style of song was deemed unsuitable for her pick of Cher Lloyd. By the time panel came around, some were more confident than others. Justin in particular was looking very comfortable with this weeks performance whilst waiting for the results, as did Bazz and so was Val who had picked a forum favourite in Marina & the Diamonds. However, only one of these had reason to be confident – and that was Justin who netted his first call-out! Young mentor Niall also played up to his strengths as he received second call-out, and Louise finished the top 3 line-up with her Olly Murs pick. SacredDiablo lived up to expectations just falling short of the top 3 with Dylan, Gav, Aliyah, Pete and Val also being called to complete the top half of this weeks call-out order. Jackel and Zak received the next two call-outs with Tyra informing them that they need to step it up. Having experienced numerous positive reviews managed to save David and Bazz as they were the two next to be called leaving Jess, Kevin, Seth, Stevie and Tommy still standing waiting to hear their fate. Having used a song for Goldie that Zak had used previously in a fellow competition, which Seth himself participates in, he was condemned however called safe and so was Jess who was told to work on making sure all of her choices are as strong as the one she used in round one. The bottom 3 remained, consisting of Tommy – who was still upset after losing his best friend Stacey the previous week, Kevin and Stevie. Unfortunately, Stevie became the third to be eliminated having failed to connect to the voters with his unique song. Kevin came under fire for a second week of not shining through and living up to the potential Tyra knows he has whereas Tommy’s dedication to the tournament was thrown into question as he let the exit of Stacey get to him just a bit too much. But who should stay? Tyra’s decision was that Tommy deserved the final place in the Top 16 based on his potential but warned to put mentoring ahead of friendship in order to succeed and Kevin became the forth mentor to be given the boot as Tyra just didn’t see the potential in him to stir up the competition and was told to pack and leave the mentor house. Sixteen continue on in their quest to become the Next Top Mentor! Fadeout Show #2 Round Three After the early exits of Stevie & Kevin in the round beforehand, everybody was feeling the pressure. Seeing a regular mentor with plenty of experience leave so early was a shock for everybody. However, he wasn’t the only one shocked or upset over the result. Bazz kicks off the weeks confessionals by declaring himself a broken man over his choice being, for a second time now, so far down the call-out list. He questioned his mentoring ability but also whether or not he would ever be able to get back in to the game. Elsewhere, Aliyah was feeling down over a record low finish for her of seventh but promised to redeem herself with a grade A song choice for the third round. Tommy reassured his doubters that he would make it through after appearing in the Bottom 3 previously and both Seth & Louise also decided that it was time to take matters in to their own hands and pull out a first call-out. Val, who had struggled in the first round, also took to the confessions room to confirm that she wasn’t a broken woman and that she was going to make it to the top this week after two below average performances. When it came to reviews for this round, there were a few that seemed to shine through. Carolynne Poole (represented by Aliyah) and Belle Amie (represented by Justin) seemed to be able to do no wrong although being so favoured comes with it’s consequences as some rival mentors began to see arrogance in the mentors at the top, as ego’s seemed to have formed. Ethan Boroian (David) and James Michael (SacredD) were also seen to be good choices. However, at the other end of the spectrum, Laura White (mentored by Louise) wasn’t able to hit the right spot and neither could Rachel Adedeji (Seth) or Sophie Habibis (Val), much to all of their mentors dismay after wanting a positive week. Ruth Lorenzo (Bazz) also came under fire for giving a performance that some deemed to be too ‘rocky’. However, after reviews, one thing was for sure. The competition was wide open both at the top and at the bottom and nobody really had any idea who would be leaving this round. At panel some mentors were more confident than others. The majority of the mentoring society seemed positive that Justin would be swooping in for another first call-out however instead, other frontrunner Aliyah was able to pip the other mentors to the post by claiming her first best song choice of the week award. SacredD was fast on her heels as he claimed the second slot through to the top fourteen. Although those two were deemed quite far ahead when it came to standards, Zak, Jess and David were all able to impress too with their choices for Girl V Boy, Aiden Grimshaw and Ethan Boroian respectively. However, by this point, Justin was pulling similar faces to X Factor classic granny Edna as name after name was called before his, despite such great reviews from every corner. Dylan was next to be called and whilst everybody was in a state of disbelief, Justin was eventually called in seventh position. Gav, Tommy, Pete and Niall were also able to progress to the next round and avoid the danger zone that is the Bottom Five. Familiars with the bottom rankings, Bazz, Seth and Val looked prepared for the final results to be called whereas newcomers to such low rankings Jackel & Louise were both visibly distressed by their appearance. Bazz was the first of the bottom five to be called safe, despite being warned once again for poor performances, with the person in a very similar situation Seth the last person to be saved from a bottom three appearance. Jackel, Louise and Val were unfortunately not as lucky, as two were to be eliminated from the ultimate tournament for hopeful mentors. Jackel was present in the bottom three due to showing a lack of respect to his voters, whereas Val was warned that being ‘good’ without having any standout performances would only get you so far whilst Louise was condemned for cracking under the pressure set by the other top mentors. Jackel, despite having almost an invisible edit for the entire tournament, was the first to be sent packing and he was then followed by Louise who had shown such promise only a round beforehand with her third place although ultimately it wasn’t good enough as her zigzagging performance became the end for her, leaving Val still standing with one more chance. Fourteen mentors continue on in the hope of becoming the Next Top Mentor. Fadeout Show #3 Round Four -enter description here- Fadeout Show #3